A Gift for You For you, our friends who have followed our mission, and benefited in any way from our experiences, we have created a keepsake 92-page digital book. You can download it FREE here. Happiest Faces Digital Book 7.13 MB Download We also plan to print a limited number of these books for family and friends. When we began this website, we named it Happiest Faces on Earth because we saw in the Ugandan people an indomitable spirit in the face of great challenges. While that is still true, it is not exclusive to Uganda. It can be found anywhere. We’ve discovered the key to happiness lies in how we live life far more than where we live. Those here who appear to be the most happy have common characteristics, which we can replicate. 1. Faith in God and Jesus Christ, and practice religion regularly and openly. 2. Sweat and work to provide for needs. 3. Care for one another in an extended family model. 4. Avoid materialism, and find peace sitting under a Mango tree. We do not need to move to Uganda to experience this kind of happiness. We can do it anywhere in the world, and in many cases much easier than our friends living with the inherent challenges of Ugandan culture. The website has taken time to create and manage, but we feel it has been useful both as a living journal and a missionary tool. We hope our friends and family have benefited from our mission in some way. So today, with only three weeks remaining, we ask ourselves what we have learned...

While visiting a large primary school today, we saw this decal on the wall of the school administrator. It is very sobering to consider that child sacrifice is still performed in many parts of Africa, usually by a local witch doctor. We’ve met some of these, and even known one who joined the Church, but soon fell away. In this land of the happiest faces on earth, there exists a kind of barbarianism and cruelty beyond fathom for those in more developed parts of the world. Who would think that black magic, witchcraft, child sacrifice, child slavery, brutal murders and even cannibalism would exist in our modern world? But they do. We have met and loved many people who have experienced such horrific tragedies as having their children poisoned by a family member in order to humble them when they have prospered too much for the liking of the clan. Family members have been burned alive in their huts, locked inside so they had no escape. We’ve seen huts burned (with no one inside to our knowledge). We have heard graphic stories of how people were abducted or murdered by the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) in northern Uganda, in very recent years. We will never share such descriptions, for, like the atrocities of war, they are so far beyond comprehension that the very thoughts make us quake and cry. So why make this kind of post on the happiest faces website? Because we must acknowledge that this kind of cruelty exists today, and it is very real. Satan is alive and well in the land, and making progress within the realm of his influence....

This week we’ve been in Mbale, a city of about 500,000 people on the eastern border of Uganda. As we’ve traveled about, we’ve commented many times how this place feels like the Garden of Eden. Today, we visited the village of Sirenko at the foot of 14,000 ft. Mt. Elgon, which straddles Uganda and Nairobi. To me, this is the most Eden-like place on earth, with crystal clear spring water, deep fertile soil, mild temperatures, and foods that grow almost on their own, year round. I realize that some believe Eden was somewhere in the U.S., such as the place called Adam-ondi-Ahman in Jackson County Missouri. I beg to differ. It may have been the place where Adam dwelt after being driven from the Garden, but I’m persuaded that Uganda is a much more likely locale for year-round comfort. Consider Adam and Eve, naked, living off the land with no ability to cultivate and grow crops, find shelter from a storm, or warm themselves. Then think about what Missouri would offer such a bare-skinned pair. It seems more like the dark and dreary world by comparison. Here in Uganda, they could easily be without clothing and live off the land year round. And they’d never go hungry because food grows freely everywhere. All they’d have to do is pick and eat. As we drove with our branch leader guides deep into the bush of Sirenko, Eden was on my mind. And when we stopped to visit in a small grass shelter used for local church services (not ours), I fell in love. The children came first, peeping and giggling and daring each other...